I had finally interviewed Professor Tomas Lindgren after doing his fieldwork for the second time in Ambon (the first one was done in 2005 and now 2009) in a cafe in Yogyakarta. Prof. Lindgren interviewed people who were directly involved in the conflict and several Ambonese scholars who talked about the conflict in Ambon which happened for five years (1999-2004). There were a great deal of important findings and analyses that he revealed during this one on one interview.

CRCS: What are you doing this time for your research?

Ram is an Indian scholar who hails from the southern part of India. He lives in a city called Bangalore, and is part of the Centre for Study Culture & Society (CSCS). He came to Yogyakarta to teach graduate students at Gadjah Mada University for three months for the International Summer School. In this interview, Ram describes the relationship of majority of Hindus and Muslim minority and the Christian which becomes an important issue in relationship among adherents in India since the 1980s. Besides the problem of radicalism Hindus, India also faces problems of the border with Pakistan and the emergence of several separatist movements, therefore Ram emphasizes that the real problems in India is similar to those problem faced by the Indonesian government.

Patrick Guiness is an anthropologist who first came to Yogyakarta in the 1970s; his most impressive ethnographic work which is highly recognized until now is “Five Families on Sand Diggers.” It talks about the sand diggers in Code River in 1977. This work is a sort of a life history which later became his dissertation that made him obtained his PhD degree. Dr. Guiness also wrote about the scavengers in Yogyakarta. Shortly after that, he published his book about the kampong society entitled “Harmony and Hierarchy in a Javanese Kampung” (1986) which gives sympathy and advocacy to the citizens of Kampung Ledok living in the riverbank of Code River in Yogyakarta.

Prof. Makoto Koike with Uma Ratu (blogspot.com)

Umbu Haharu is the name given to Professor Makoto Koike by the villagers of Wunga Village in East Sumba when he was doing his ethnographic research for his doctoral dissertation in December 1985–June 1988. The effort was done to delve into the culture (courtship, marriages, arts, dances and social manners) and beliefs (religious, myth and legends) of the village. “Wunga is the first Kampong in Sumba, mythical and interesting,” Makoto said.

In an interview with CRCS at Elvin Hotel in East Sumba, Makato disclosed that he chose Sumba because he had developed interest on Sumba while doing a library research on Eastern Indonesia for his Master Degree thesis at Tokyo Metropolitan University. This post-graduate work in the same university is a concretization of his desire of visiting Indonesia, especially Eastern Indonesia.

Ram is an Indian scholar who hails from the southern part of India. He lives in a city called Bangalore, and is part of the Centre for Study Culture & Society (CSCS). He came to Yogyakarta to teach graduate students at Gadjah Mada University for three months for the International Summer School. In this interview, Ram describes the relationship of majority of Hindus and Muslim minority and the Christian which becomes an important issue in relationship among adherents in India since the 1980s. Besides the problem of radicalism Hindus, India also faces problems of the border with Pakistan and the emergence of several separatist movements, therefore Ram emphasizes that the real problems in India is similar to those problem faced by the Indonesian government.